I came home this morning around nine o' clock from Kathleen's place. Tom had driven back and I had agreed to go to the party with him. When I came inside the door everything with quiet. My feet carried me to the living room where Amelia slept on the couch with an open laptop on the table. I smiled and pulled the falling blanket on top of her.
After a banana, I went up to my room and started to pick out my outfit for tonight. Keri said just to look cute, and then Summer said something about looking do-able. Well I'm not a slut...I'll find something.
"Morning," I jumped around to see Amelia leaning on my doorframe.
"Hi, sorry did I wake you?" I asked her.
"Not at all, how was the sleep over?" she asked.
"Pretty good, the boys came by at around nine something and tipied Kathleen's house. Then they cleaned it up just so they could come in and watch a movie. Evan wet himself, which I enjoyed," I said. She chuckled.
"Well listen, I gave it some thought and decided to let you go to the party tonight," she said.
"Really? You're okay with that?" I asked.
"Of course, but if you come home after midnight and you're drunk than you're grounded," she replied.
"Deal, and I won’t get wasted," I said.
"Good girl, now if I were you..." Amelia went over to my dresser and pulled out a cropped tank with a tribal heart on the front. "I would wear this with a cute pair of jeans," she said.
"That is perfect," I said.
"Good, now take a shower and get yourself out of those clothes. And if something happens tonight call me. I'll come and get you, okay?"
"Okay, by the way I finished my French homework," I said
"Good girl, I'll take a look at it later."
Madison
I had Jake pinned under me, and kissing him over and over again. This had to work.
"Well? How do you feel?" I asked.
"No different, you said this would work," he replied and pushed me off of him.
"We made an agreement, but all your doing is scaring Courtney away and she's running to Tom for refuge," I said.
"It's not my fault I was born this way. I can't help that when I look at a guy my eyes go directly to his package," he replied.
"Well get a brain and start looking at girls' boobs. It's not healthy for you to feel this way, especially at our school where everybody is judged on labels!" I exclaimed.
"Would you stop nagging me? I can't help it. Today was just my luck to get caught by Andy Fuller when he saw me checking out Randal's ass," he said and hung his head low. I resisted the urge to gag when I patted his back.
"Is it true that Tom knows?" I asked.
"They all know, I doubt Courtney does. I wouldn't be surprised if those two were to do the deed at the party tonight." he replied. I thought a minute for a plan, and then it struck me.
"Wait a minute, maybe this is exactly what we need." I said.
"What?"
Courtney
I changed into a grey drape dress and combat boots. I painted my nails, did my makeup, and put on some cool jewelry. According to my mirror, I looked pretty good. There was a knock on my door just I finished ironing my hair.
"Come in!" I called. Amelia entered through the door with a box in her hands. I was small and fit in both palms of her hands. It looked like it was made of mahogany wood.
"Hey, I found this is my room and thought you could use it," she said and handed me the box. I opened it and saw a silver chain necklace with a blue feather hanging from it.
"Wow, it's beautiful," I said.
"I wore that necklace to my first frat party, don't worry I didn't ruin it. It's in perfectly good condition, and I think it deserves to go to you now. You'll take much better care of it than I ever have," she said.
"You've already given me so much, I honestly don't know what to say," I replied.
"Just put it on and get downstairs, Mr. Perfect is almost here," she said. I giggled and followed her to the main floor. A bowl of cashews and chocolate covered raisins sat on the island. Or I thought they were until I popped one into my mouth.
"Those are acai berries, they enhance your immune system and they're sweet," Amelia explained.
"Oh...they're good." I replied. All of the sudden a car honked outside, and the neighbor's dog started to bark wildly.
"Poor Sausage never gets to go out," Amelia sighed. Sausage was the name of the Great Dane that the neighbors had next door.
"Well that's me, I'll be home by midnight," I said and grabbed my coat.
"All right, and if you run into an problems just phone me and I'll pick you up," she replied.
"Kay," I left out the door and found Tom with a car outside. It was an old sixties car with red paint and no hood.
"Whoa, where'd you get this?" I asked as I hopped in.
"It belongs to my dad, he got it for his sixteenth birthday," he replied.
"Aren't you going to say something to me?" I asked eagerly.
"Do you mean the fact that you look like a very beautiful, attractive, sexy young woman tonight?" he asked, which made me giggle.
"That'll work," I replied. Amelia stood at the door stoop waving at us while we drove away.
We passed through the cute little neighborhood I had become so familiar with into a new territory. This part of Durango was more modern like New York City. There were high skyscrapers and fast food restaurants. The vintage stores that I had grown to love where nowhere to be seen, just modern twenty-first century stores like Juicy Couture and Burger King. People in baggy clothes and cigarettes sealed in their lips sat on the sidewalks with cardboard signs reading messages like 'Broke, need money' or 'Lost savings, anything will do'. It reminded me of Denver, something I didn't want to think about. The smoke stacks and large neon signs took away from the natural beauty of Durango. Not a tree nor shrub was in sight. Everything was concrete.
"I know, I don't like it either," Tom broke the silence that kept being interrupted by wailing car horns and people shouting at others to get out of their way.
"What happened?" I asked.
"In the eighties, people from LA came in wanting to expand onto Durango. The city made a compromise to keep their land but modernize it for more people to come in," he explained. I looked around again at the artificial landscape that surrounded the red sixties style car.
"People lost their homes. Forests were cut down; the shops went out of business. When my mom was younger, she always came to a malt shop that had the best milkshakes and cookies in the whole state. It was called Gilner's Malts and Treats, now it's a Wendy's," Tom added, his expression filled with hurt. I couldn't hide my sadness either. That was the problem with the world today; people think taking away something historic and simple will make people want to come to visit. Attractions shouldn't be the reason people should visit this beautiful city...I guess it was too late now.
We drove out of the bustling city into a more millionaire style neighborhood. There were huge, expensive looking houses and large yards. Fountains and pools were laid out and reflected the color of the sun going down. Sprinklers were gushing out huge amounts of water onto the perfectly cut lawns. Lights illuminated the tile and acrylic that made up the house and the large window panels made it tempting for someone to look inside.
Tom pulled up to a house that was made of stone brick and had many rectangular windows. The roof had charcoal tiles laid down neatly, and lights brightening the stone details. There was a large yard with teenagers running around and drinking.
"So, this is Kate's party?" I asked.
"Yeah um-oh, watch out," Tom held me back just as two drunken kids stumbled by with a zip-lock bag filled with white powder, drugs I presumed.
"Anyway, Kate's parents have several businesses across the country and they're away a lot. Kate takes advantage of it,” he continued.
"I can see that. And her parents don't know about this?" I asked.
"Nope, clueless as rats," he replied.
"Wow, they must be pretty busy to ignore the stench," I said. They yard smelt of stale beer and weed.
"So is everybody from school here?" I asked.
"Yeah, Madison likes to send out details about Kate's parties to everybody. Her Facebook has over 5000 friends," he replied.
"Sound like a bunch of gold diggers instead of friends," I replied, just in time to duck a football rocketing by.
"I know but...what're you going to do?" he asked as we approached the door. Tom knocked twice and it surprisingly opened. The music was very loud, how could someone hear a light knock over that bass? A pretty petite girl with red velvet hair stood there wearing a floral skirt, a bandeau, and pumps.
"Hi Tom, and you must be Courtney!" she said and hugged me. This girl was strong.
"Uh okay Kate, let Courtney go and don't crush her," Tom said and pulled me away from her.
"Oh sorry, well it's so great to finally meet you. You can do whatever you want here," she said.
"Right...and how many beers have you had Kate?" Tom asked her.
"About five," makes sense. Anyway, we went inside where it looked like the entire student body was here.
"If you're looking for your friends than they're in the back playing beer pong," Kate told us.
"Thanks Kate, come on Court," Tom guided me through the sweaty crowd of teenagers and to the back. Dean, Kathleen, Summer, and Evan were playing beer pong with some other kids.
"Hey there they are," Evan said, his speech sounded slightly slurred.
"How much have you had to drink?" I asked.
"A couple chugs, no biggie," he replied...then took another gulp of beer.
"Uh okay, I'll go get us something to drink, and you wait here. Kay?" Tom asked me.
"Sure," I agreed.
-
We've been here for a couple hours, I'm not a drinker person so I'm not drunk, neither are Dean, Kathleen, and Tom. Summer is past out on the couch, I have no idea where Carson and Evan are...and something tells me I don't want to know.
"Where're Keri and Luke?" Kathleen asked.
"Somewhere that's not here," I replied. She gave me a 'really?' look.
"You don't say?" she said. I shrugged.
"I volunteer to find them," Dean said.
"They might not even be here though, " Tom said.
"Yeah right, Keri miss one of these parties?"
"I'll go find them, I have to use the bathroom anyway. Save my drink, don't spike it or I will hurt you," I said and stood up from the couch. My feet carried me upstairs to the more secluded areas. I did have to go to the bathroom. When I peeked into one of the rooms, there was a bathroom...along with a couple who were close to ripping their clothes off. I rolled my eyes and went to find another bathroom.
At the end of the hall was a girly purplish pink bedroom. No doubt it was Kate's. No Keri or Luke. There was a bathroom next to her closet, might as well take advantage. I went in quickly and did my business, then came back out...to see a silhouette sitting on the bed.
"You look beautiful tonight," a familiar voice spoke. I rolled my eyes.
"Hi Jake," I said and started out the door. Jake grabbed my arm and spun me around, and then he kissed me! He tasted like alcohol and sweat. I slapped him across the face and he crashed into Kate's vanity table.
"That wasn't very nice Courtney," he said and stood up straight, slightly wobbling and trying to keep his composure. He was obviously drunk.
"You deserve it you drunken jerk." I replied. That was a bad move. Jake lifted his arm and backhanded me across the face. My hand flew to my stinging cheek. No doubt that would leave a mark tomorrow.
"Why don't you feel it bitch!" he shouted at me.
"Feel what?" I was confused.
"That sensual, sweet madness!" was he high or something?
"What's the matter with you?" I snapped and ran out of the room. I could hear him following me.
"Don't walk away from me, bitch!" he screeched.
"Too late, go fuck a slut," I replied and started down the stairs.
"Fine, you want to be a joy kill, here," two hands grabbed the back of my dress and roughly and pushed me down the stairs. I landed on my hands, my knees scraped against the marble floors. Everyone's attention flew to us.
"You like that bitch? How do you like this?" before Jake could hit me again, Tom came running out and punched him in the nose. Jake fell to the floor bleeding.
"Come on Court, let's get out of here," Tom helped me up and we ran out of the house, my knees started to sting. We ran into the car and started driving.
"Are you okay?" Tom asked. I didn't answer, I was still in my own shock to comprehend what had just happened.
"Courtney, did he hurt you?" Tom's voice became louder. I shook my head.
"Not much I'm fine. I knew this was a mistake," I said.
"Neither of us knew. It's fine now," he said, his voice was shaky, like he would crack down crying.
"I can't go home like this. Can I stay at your house tonight?" I asked him. He shifted his eyes from the road to me, and then a smile cracked his lips.
"Of course. We'll be five minutes," he replied. As we kept driving, the look on Jake's face when he slapped me kept replaying in my mind. I honestly didn't think he was an angry drunk, he was trying to do something to me? What did he mean when he said 'sensual, sweet madness'? What was that?
"Court? We're here," Tom pulled me out of my thoughts and I realized we were back at his house.
"I'll text Amelia, she might be asleep," I said and pulled out my phone. I sent a message to Amelia that I wasn't coming home. Tom opened up the door to his house and we went inside. Everything was pitch black, except for some blue or white lights shining from the TV software.
"Have a seat, I'll get the first aid kit and some ice," he instructed and turned on the light. I sat down on the couch, waiting for him to come back. My knees looked disgusting. They were covered in crusty blood and loose skin. There were bruises starting to form around my arm where Jake grabbed me.
Tom came back two minutes later with a white box and a bag of ice. He pressed the ice to my knees; I winced as they stung my skin.
"Sorry," he said.
"No, it's fine," I replied. He took away the ice and poured some disinfectant on a cotton ball, then padded my knees. When all of the grime was gone, he took out two white cloth bandages and medical tape.
"Are you parents home?" I asked.
"Yeah but they always shut their bedroom door and Sally is a deep sleeper. They won't hear us," he replied and put the equipment away. I sighed.
"Amelia is going to freak when she sees me like this," I said and lay back. Tom looked back at me and sat down.
"She'd freak more if Jake had hurt you more than he did," he replied.
"What do you want to do now?" I asked, trying to get away from the subject. I had had enough of Jake and friends.
"We can sit by the fire?" he suggested. Just as the word fire passed his lips, a chill ran through my body and I shivered.
"I’ll take that as a yes then," he said and went over to the fireplace. I joined him, curled up against the ottoman. The blaze lit up the small corner we sat in, flames crackling against the wood. That familiar and comforting scent of pine and sweet smoke filled the air. Of course, it was a gas fireplace. It felt so real though.
"You know even though I was attacked by an angry drunk, I still had fun tonight," I said.
"I'm glad you did, I'm sorry it ended in hell though," he replied.
"Well you can always take me to another one," I smirked. Tom chuckled.
"It's a date. And no more jerky drunken bastards," he said, and then he leaned down and kissed me.